hi bbe!
when i was 11 i had EXACTLY thge same thing, i was diagnosed with anorexia due to the wqeight loss and fear in '' s of food. it IS A REAL PHOBIA ..... ur not the only one. ive learnt to eat again and primarily i did that with DBT therepy.... pls look it up luv, ur not alone....and now im almost a normal human being again!!¨
dont panic.....its ok....ul be ok n normal one day but i tell u it takes time and dont worry if people think ur nuts...but UR NOT.
luvs n hugs karen xx

get something from like walgreens called thick it up to add to liquids makes them easier to swallow also have a better dr check this out - you may have a stricture in your throat up high like me -- i have acid reflux and it has caused this - i have to go again to have this re stretched out which is very painful after wards - when they did this last year it was super painful and only helped a small bit as i was in so much pain

Does anybody has the fear to swallow food, especially liquid? I am not afraid to lose weight, I would love to restore my original weight. Just for the last 4 years, I have had the fear of swallowing food and liquid, as a result, I lost a lot of weight. I don't know how to over come this fear. I think I lost the reflex that supports swallowing.

I also suffer from this and have suffered most of my life. No one can seem to help. I didn't realize so many people had the same problem till now. I've been embarrassed and made fun of and told I was trying to get attention, while I suffered silently and cried alone. I am now 45 and i feel like a child. I need help. I am so dehydrated. I also suffer from major panic attacks. My life has been a wirlwind of abuse in many different ways, not sure if that attributes to this torture I'm going through now. Have you gotten help? and if so, how and where? I understand your struggle.

The Following User Says Thank You to Oaldon For This Useful Post:sadgirl1938 (05-23-2012)

with me its my acid reflux i myself have to go and have the throat dilated in a few weeks / i have 2 strictures one up high above where your neck meets your chest and one below that in the chest area / the one up high is the worst to deal with for me / i feel like food is trying very hard to go past these two spots / painful after i eat as i think the strictures bruise them selves trying to get the food to go down / i see my dr soon and will have to get this done / i had it done last year 2 times to no relief as i dont think it was done correctly i was in SO MUCH pain both times after. not normal i dont think ??

this time i hope all goes well and no pain / will let you know what happens / also some one told me that their niece has to have this done every 3 months give or take bc she also has severe acid reflux and that their sister in law gets in done twice a year at least so

i think it just varies.

another person in that ladies same family gets it done yearly / every one is different / not fun being put to sleep i can tell you that / but it has to be done // will let you know how it goes and if i am able to swallow better after wards / but for real if you have problems with this get help early on you maybe able to just take some pills for acid reflux and you might be fine with that / if i had started to take pills for this years ago i wouldnt be here with 2 strictures like this now !!

and once you get them they are so hard to get rid of !! they never go away you just constantly have to go and get them opened up with various degrees of success for each person / for me it didnt help at all last year but just left me in severe pain / anxiety

i never knew i had severe acid reflux, once in a while i got mild heart burn after a spicy meal / thats all and thats all it took to damage my throat permanently

does anybody has the fear to swallow food, especially liquid? I am not afraid to lose weight, i would love to restore my original weight. Just for the last 4 years, i have had the fear of swallowing food and liquid, as a result, i lost a lot of weight. I don't know how to over come this fear. I think i lost the reflex that supports swallowing.

yes, i have the same fear..so i can definitely relate to you..i could stand to lose the extra pounds but it's agonizing to not be able to eat or drink when you feel like it

well i went to a new dr, a much better dr than what i have been able to get in the past / he said it was still acid reflux and gave me some pills, prilosec. i am partial to prevacid myself or pepcid. but will try pills at night before bed. i noticed the last few days i did have more heart burn when burping for example than usual at bed time. also he will do another dilation towards the end of June. i cant wait, i know he is so much better than what i am used to getting and he will have a answer also for my hiatal hernia which aggravates my reflux condition terribly / every one get to a good dr, even if you have to buy health insurance to get one. my dr is one of the top voted dr's in the 5280 magazine from denver, look in your local magazines and see what you can find on good drs in your area. will let you know what happens after the dialtion, any how at least now i feel like maybe i will live thru this, this has completely and i do mean completely debilitated me for the last year or so. i couldnt work couldnt focus. my room mate has gotten to hate me even. i got in with this dr bc my mom went to him when she was alive and as a favor he agreed to see me although his office has never taken my low income insurance before ever.

sounds like gerd acid reflux - i have that - they go in and stretch it a little a balloon and then i can eat food again ok - i go like every year to do it - no big deal - they knock u out and then u wake up and your all done - they will make u take acid pills b4 u go to sleep. like pepcid etc. thats what i take. some ppl take prevacid, prilosec etc, before bed. also i have a food allergy up high in my throat maybe u have that ? i take a steroid spray for that with a small swallow of water before bed every night and it does seem to help me a lot. but when it does really get tight i go have it dilated. but go to a real good dr of u will regret it.

sounds like gerd acid reflux - i have that - they go in and stretch it a little a balloon and then i can eat food again ok - i go like every year to do it - no big deal - they knock u out and then u wake up and your all done - they will make u take acid pills b4 u go to sleep. like pepcid etc. thats what i take. some ppl take prevacid, prilosec etc, before bed. also i have a food allergy up high in my throat maybe u have that ? i take a steroid spray for that with a small swallow of water before bed every night and it does seem to help me a lot. but when it does really get tight i go have it dilated. but go to a real good dr or u will regret it when u have it dilated.

Hi Oaldon, how are you doing today? I hope and pray better! I too have suffered from this issue. It's been over a year and I still cannot swallow like I used to. At my worst, I was down to 102 lbs and could not swallow food or liquids, unless awakened from a deep sleep in the middle of the night. Then I would suck down 4 or 5 ensures. I had to have my husband set an alarm and wake me up 3 times in the middle of the night so I could drink the ensures. As crazy as it sounds it's like I have to have to drink before my brain is fully awake! I was sent to all kinds of specialists and had every test imaginable done to rule out anything physical. I hate to say it, but I was hoping they would find something because I knew if they didnt' that I was going to have to figure out to fix this myself. I think I went 3 or 4 weeks surviving on nothing but the ensures I'd get in the middle of the night. I wanted to roll over and die. Twice I was in the ER getting IV fluids to rehydrate me. At one point my doctor told me if I lost any more weight, I'd have to get a feeding tube. I was just so frustrated. It's not like the food and drink wouldn't go down my throat, I couldn't even get them to the throat. They didn't go past my mouth, because I had a fear if I did swallow that I'd choke. Liquids were worse then food because you can't control them when they're in your mouth, like you can food. My doctor thought it was anxiety and stress related right from the start BECAUSE i was able to drink just fine in the middle of the night. I think I started recovering after I saw an ENT doctor who took his time to talk to me and assure me that there was absolutely nothing physically wrong. He had me eat applesauce and pudding in front of him and altho I didn't do well with it, just his reassuring me put me on the slow road to recovery. He told me it was almost like I had an adversion to swallowing. My g.p. told me it was like I had wires crossed in my brain. I do have to tell you, that I had a lot of stressful events happen in my life right before my problem began. I also had two choking events happen when I was a child. Once on an icecube and once on a jawbreaker. I've always eaten slow, always been the last one to leave the table, and I've always chewed my food up into a million bites! but i noticed it getting worse in the summer of 2011. Then one day out of the blue I was looking at a glass of soda I had in front of me and I thought to myself, "what if I can't drink liquids" and I swear it felt like a bolt of lightening went thru me at that very minute and from that point on I've had this problem. When I first started eating again, I'd eat soft boiled eggs. It would take me an hour to get one egg down me, but I knew I had to do it. To give up would have been disaster for me, so I ate that egg no matter how long it took and no matter how cold and disgusting it tasted. I tried the thickit, sold in drugstores, and it didnt' help me. Sometimes I'd be able to drink a slushy drink, I got addicted to taco bells strawberry mango fruitista! I couldn't drink them as they were served, but I'd put them in our freezer to make them more frozen and could then eat them by scooping them out with a spoon. Eventually I was sent to a psychiatrist who diagnosed me with severe anxiety. I tried a few different meds, paxil, which made me feel all the more hungry and very antsy, so I went on prozac, which caused a bleeding problem with me, ativan, which I did take only when I felt extremely stressed out, it didn't help that much with the swallowing problem, but did help a little with the basic anxiety. I"m still seeing my psychiatrist, he changed my drug over to zoloft. First he gave me the liquid form, which was a joke, because after reading how to take it, I just got more stressed out. You have to mix it with water and drink it right after mixing it. Granted, it's not a lot of water, BUT..when you have our problem, theres' just no way this med is going to work! So, he changed it over to pill form, which I've yet to take. I have a fear of taking meds and even though I was assured that I could smash this pill up and take it with applesauce, I still do not trust it. So for the time being I am drug free. Over the past 15 months I have come a long way. It took a lot of time and prayer to get me on the road to recovery. I still cannot eat most meats and I still have trouble with liquids. I have to drink with a straw, so no longer can enjoy a hot cup of coffee. And I still suck down most of my drinks in the middle of the night after being awakened from a deep sleep. Because I put ON weight over the past year, I changed my drink of choice from ensure to flavored water. I suck down four cups of it and then go back to sleep. Thruout the day, i drink soda and iced coffee, but I spill as much as I get down me. I have to take about a dozen sips thru the straw...where I suck the drink up and into my mouth and then let it spill back out, before I get up the courage to let a sip go down! I constantly spill it all over my clothes and the floor. At one point my husband told me to stand over the kitchen sink to drink so I wouldn't make any messes. This made me mad, I told him that i already feel bad because I can't drink like a normal person, and standing over a sink would only make me feel worse. Altho he was very supportive and helpful when I was at my lowest point, he still would get so frustrated with me (as would my doctor) because he just could not understand it. He would say DRINK IT...reminding me that there was no physical reason why I couldn't swallow. It's so hard to make anyone who doesn't have this problem understand it. My heart and prayers go out to you and everyone else who suffers from this. My psychiatrist told me that it's like all my stress comes out thru my swallowing...whereas with most people, it comes out thru their backs (backaches) or head (headaches), mine just so happens to center around my mouth and ability to swallow. Okay, now that I've rambled on about this, I will tell you some of the things that have helped me. I will tell you too that i've only had about four perfectly normal days since this all began and they were like heaven! My husband tells me not to think about swallowing, but how can I help not to? If only it were that easy to fix! Like I said, I still get up in the middle of the night to drink 4 cups of water. I have to do it in a groggy state and I drink it fast! Brain freeze fast! During the day, I have to use a straw and if I'm at my worst, I have to scoop a frozen drink with a spoon. I forgot to mention that I sometimes have a problem with thinking I have too much saliva in my mouth too, and if I do, I just use a spit cup. Gone are the days of caring how I appear! When i first started eating again, I could get soft boiled eggs down me easier then other foods. Mac and cheese were another easier food to eat. When I am taking all those sips of my drinks that I let fall back out of my mouth, sometimes If I let them spill onto me and the drink is cold, it does something to my brain that makes it so I can get the next few swallows down. Crazy as it sounds, but I sometimes spill my drinks on myself just so i can drink a few sips! A hypnotist helped me for awhile too, but only for a few hours after each session. And I know this doesn't work for everyone. If anyone knew of an anxiety drug that would fix this, I haven't heard about it yet. Some may help reduce anxiety, but i've yet to read about anyone with our problem saying they found THE drug that made our misery go away. Some days are going to be better and some are going to be worse, accept this and keep on moving on. NEVER give up. We have to fix this ourselves and it isn't easy, but we really don't have any other choice. Try not to let it embarrass you when you're in public. I find that if i'm in a restaurant and I notice someone staring at me while i'm drinking in my odd way of sucking the drink up thru my straw and letting it fall back out from my mouth back into the drink (til I get the courage up to let a sip go down my throat) that this actually helps me get a few sips down...because i don't like them to see me doing this, I can get it down then! Be grateful for what you can drink or eat. I can't drink my hot coffee that I once loved, but I can drink iced coffee and i can still drink a few of the beers that I loved, even though Im using a straw to drink them with! Hey..a benie here is that it hits faster so helps you relax faster! I do have to say that it's rare that I drink alcohol...maybe four times a year. This past new years eve, I drank three margaritas and was a flipping sticky mess by the time I finished, but they tasted good enough that they were worth my tequilla smelling clothes! so try not to let it embarrass you when out in public at a restaurant. and last but far from least...my faith and prayer help me thru this. I hope and pray that you're doing better since your last post! Btw..I just had a casting director for a tv show talk to me about this. Not sure if I'll get the job, it's a documentary on odd medical problems, but when the lady told me she had never heard of such a thing as this, I told her, there are more of us out there with this problem. She said this show is just in the beginning phase so it may not even come into fruition, but if it does, it would be nice to have one or more of my "I forgot how to swallow" friends with me! I would love to one day meet with all of you on this website who share this frustrating problem! Shelley Wheeler

Hi Sadgirl74! I'm sure my problem isn't reflux, I've seen many specialists and had more then enough tests done to know that it's not physical. It's a mental problem, believed to be brought on from stress and anxiety. The food and drink do not want to go past your mouth with this problem. It's not a problem with the throat, because it doesn't even make it to the throat because of a fear of choking on it! And it's worse, for me, with liquids, because they are harder to control when in your mouth then solid foods are. I've gotten better over the past year but still have to deal with this problem as best as I can. I hope you're feeling better these days! Shelley

The following user gives a hug of support to sparklebelle:sadgirl74 (01-13-2013)